"I think this is actually the best time to have a political satire program in Egypt," he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

"Basically we are the drama queen of the world, with everything happening. We're kind of the international political soap opera," he said. "So it's a great time and era to have a political satire to comment on everything that's happening."

But he noted that some Egyptians had accused him of being anti-Islam.

"I'm proud to be an Egyptian and a Muslim," he told Amanpour. "My mom is always concerned every time I go on TV. She's afraid that I'm going to be caught and put in prison. But you know, that's what moms do. But I satirize. The way it goes down with people, many are actually accepting it. And actually, it's empowering a lot of people that they think that this speaks on their behalf."

Recently some people critical of Morsy's government have been arrested or brought in for questioning, a tactic critics have said is reminiscent of the ousted Hosni Mubarak government. Some have accused the government of trying to stifle free speech.

"Pathetic efforts to smother dissent and intimidate media is a sign of a shaky regime and a bunker mentality," Mohamed ElBaradei, an Egyptian opposition leader and former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, wrote in a Twitter post Saturday.